Photography

A picture paints a thousand words

Words are the star players when it comes to communication, but photography can play an important supporting role. Carefully selected photos can focus interest that draws your audience in, and strong visual imagery can help commit words to memory, cementing your message. So is it true to say a picture paints a thousand words? Well it can be, but be careful they send the right message.

Commissioning photography can be an expense it is tempting to avoid and every business has an enthusiast with a point and shoot or a camera phone. But the difference really shows. Don’t let your thousand words say “we don’t believe our product is worth more than a snap-shot”.

Why hire a photographer when stock images are so cheap?

It is true that stock photography has its place, we have used hundreds of stock images over the years. Sometimes it simply isn’t practical to commission a shoot, for instance for travel brochures; it would be a lucky photographer to get paid to shoot an exotic holiday brochure when there are thousands of professional pictures available for a few pounds from micro-stock.

But if you are trying to paint your product or business in its best light, there is nothing worse than stock photography. People can spot the fake if it’s not genuine. Company websites and brochures are overflowing with actors pretending to work, of engineered cultural diversity, of shiny technology. If your people are your best asset, don’t be afraid to show them – your audience will connect with real people far more than with a model acting a part.

If you are showing your product, then stock photography isn’t an option. But you must show your product in its best light. If it looks better than the competition, then you will sell more. But precisely because of the abundance of professional stock photography and expensive advertising images, people instinctively know the difference. If it looks like a poorly taken afterthought of a snapshot or an eBay product shot, it will paint a thousand words; all of them wrong!

What photographic service does 2 Sided offer?

We have a wide range of experience from the arts; music, fashion, dance and entertainment. We have shot scores of events and social occasions. We have shot sports and recreation. We have years of experience in buildings, construction & civil engineering. We have shot hundreds of commercial PR ‘people’ images, both in the studio and on location. We have shot many product pack-shots and are actively investing in the equipment, skills and specialist techniques to produce high-end luxury product images.

What about ^®Photoshop?

Every image needs to go through the digital darkroom. It is extremely rare that a photo is at its best ‘straight out of camera’. Retouching and post production techniques can add mood and emotion and heighten the impact. We are very experienced in digital manipulation, but believe in ‘light-touch’, where the desired effect is achieved, but the edit is undetectable. We are also happy to perform photo-compositing for that image that just couldn’t be shot for real!

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